The Budapest Objective
by Debstennersson
Summary: This is basically what I think happened in Budapest between Clint and Natasha!


"Barton, Romanoff, you have an assignment." Fury demanded as he slid the portfolio toward Clint and myself. "I need you both in Budapest, Hungary to take down Sándor Zoltán. He's been dealing illegal drugs. Now I'm not talking the stuff you use to get high, but killing drugs. One dose and you're toast deal. He's been very uncooperative with any other agents sent, and they've been unsuccessful, so I've offered to have two of my best agents on the case. Your plane leaves at 0600 am sharp."  
"Yes sir." Clint and I responded simultaneously. We both looked at each other and smiled. We left Fury and went to pack for an early flight. Two of SHIELD's best? More like THE best. THE best in the business. Besides the point, there was only one thing on my mind: take down this Zoltán guy.

"So, here's our cover: we're a couple, friends with István György, the millionaire hosting the party Zoltán will be dealing at tonight. And black tie formal, so make yourself look nice." I laughed. He smirked at me.  
"Haha, hehe very funny!" he said sarcastically, but he couldn't help but laugh at the reality of that statement. "And by black tie, they don't mean catsuit! Just a heads up!"  
"Oh shut up!" I told him jokingly. We always joke around about our covers for missions. We've been partners for, wow, only god knows how long. Clint's the only close friend I've ever had. I can tell everything to him and he'll listen. And he understands. Actually, he's the only one I'll tell anything personal to. I'm a whole other person around him. The way I look at it there's two Natashas: Natasha and the REAL Natasha. He's the only who gets through to the REAL Natasha. "And our names are Calvin and Cristina Hall. We're visiting from Maryland and we are both fluent in Hungarian. Lucky for you, cause if we had been sent anywhere else, you'd be screwed and I'd have to do all the talking."  
"Okay, fair enough. And I think I'd manage if we'd been sent else where." he replied. I raised my eyebrow at him. "What?!" he yelled.  
"Clint... You're Hungarian is barely worth talking about and that's where you excel best." I told him.  
"Okay, but I'd manage!"  
"Yeah, MANAGE." I laughed.  
"Okay, Miss. I-know-every-language-in-the-book, shouldn't you be getting ready?" he replied sarcastically.  
"I could say the same for you." I replied as I went to grab the long, low cut black dress, heels and Clint's tux. I walked over to him with it. "Get ready, hotshot." He smirked at me and walked away to get suited up. After I had the dress on, hair in it's usual short, curly look, makeup finished, I was strapping the gun holster to my leg, under the dress. I pulled the dress back down and walked out to Clint. He was in his tux, looking very handsome, actually. This was surprising to me, but this is one of the first times I've seen him dressed formally. He looked, well, very handsome.  
"You clean up very nice, Barton." I told him as I walked over to him.  
"You don't do to bad yourself, Romanoff." he replied. I smiled at him. He smiled back.  
"C'mon. Be honest. I mean, how do I look, really?" I asked him. He gazed up and down at me and smiled again.  
"You look beautiful. Calvin's one lucky man." he told me, happily. I smiled back at him. "I have one critique though."  
"What is it, Picasso?" I replied jokingly. He took my shoulders in his hands. I shivered at his contact. That's never happened before. I just shook it off, and forgot it ever happened. He walked me over to the mirror, hands still on my shoulders from behind me, and leaned his head next to mine. We both stared in the mirror.  
"You didn't need the makeup to look beautiful." he told me sweetly. I became very hot at that moment. I felt like the room had shifted from a cool 70 to a burning 110. I pulled away from him.  
"Umm, we had, uh, better get going." I swallowed hard, still trying to keep a friendly smile on my face, despite how nervous I was. He smiled back.  
"Alright then Mrs. Hall. Let's get going." he told me as he took my arm in his and we left the hotel. Natasha kept telling me it's just part of the cover, but the REAL Natasha was breaking through and convincing me it was more than a cover.

Shortly after, we arrived at the banquet hall. Budapest was gorgeous. This was definitely a mission with perks. Before we stepped out of the car, I adjusted my earpiece so it wasn't noticeable.  
"So, do we have a specific game plan here?" Clint questioned me.  
"Well, we'll walk in, make ourselves accounted for, then we'll need to head toward the back. Zoltán's making the dealing on the top level, and in the back, there's a curtain that leads to the stairwell we can take to get up there... Right now, all we need to worry about is looking pretty until we get the a-okay from Fury." I replied.  
"Alright, we'll let's go look pretty, which shouldn't be too hard," he told me with a smirk on his face, "the last time I checked, we're pretty good at that kind of stuff." We stepped out of the car, arm in arm, and entered the large banquet hall. It definitely was a party fit to be hosted by a millionaire.  
"Champagne?" one of the servants offered, and of course to keep the cover we had no choice, but to take it.  
"You know," Clint whispered, "for a millionaire, you'd figured they'd be able to at least have some decent champagne... This tastes awful!"  
"Well, Barton, we aren't here to drink, remember?" I whispered back playfully.  
"Romanoff, Barton, do you copy?" I heard Fury through the ear piece.  
"This is Romanoff, sir. I copy." I responded.  
"I need you and Barton to go now! We've traced Zoltán and he's planning on making his dealing earlier than we expected. If you don't get him now, we may not be able to catch him again." he replied urgently.  
"We're on it, sir." I replied. "We need to go now. Zoltán's about to make his dealing."  
"And he didn't invite us?" Clint responded. We made our way toward the curtain, and slipped by unnoticed. We made our way up the stairs and to the second to top level.  
"So, now, the plan?" Clint asked urgently. I took the dress and started to rip it from bottom to top, making the slit on the side go up to about the point where my gun was. "And you just ruined a lovely dress."  
"Looks better this way. And more functional." I smirked at him. "Go in from the air vent here and I'll give you the go when to jump out." he nodded in response. As he went into the vent, I made my way up the stairs to the last level, hand on my gun. I made a small hole through the fragile door, so I could make sure we had our guy. And there he was. Sándor Zoltán, ready to deal his drugs. Suddenly, I heard someone coming up the stairs and pulled the gun from it's holster. It's Donovan, the man who's getting the drugs tonight.  
"Hey! Who ar-"  
"Your name is Mike Donavan. You have a wife and two children. If you come any further up these stairs, you'll die. Not because I'm going to shoot you. I'm trying to help you. Now, go back to the party and forget you were ever going to buy these drugs. You wouldn't want your family to find out." I told him. He made his way back down the stairs with no questions asked what so ever. I love it when they cooperate.  
"Ready, Barton?" I asked Clint through the earpiece.  
"Ready when you are, Romanoff." he replied. I opened the door slowly. Oo  
"Végül, ha már megérkez-"  
"You know considering you wanted to keep these dealings a secret, a big millionaires party really wasn't the best place to do it." I told him as I walked through the door. His men held their guns up to me. "Hey now, boys! I don't mean any harm! I just need you to hand over the drugs, and this doesn't have to get messy."  
"And if we don't?" he began speaking english. I slowly walked over to them.  
"Well, that just wouldn't be too smart." I replied with a smirk.  
"And this move you're making... Isn't too smart. Shoot the girl." he told them. I put my hands up.  
"Woah, woah fellas!" I stopped them in their tracks, fingers over triggers, "I do get a last word, right? I mean EVERY good bad guy knows that's a rule, and I'd just like to say... Barton."  
"Barton? What's tha-" Barton came down on top of Zoltán in one swift motion. I took out and used the 'Widow's Stingers' on two of the men and continued with the rest. Zoltán did come prepared, many men to help protect if anything went wrong... Please. I had one in a head lock and snapped his neck. Another took me by surprise with a kick to the ribs, but he's never met Natasha Romanoff. I turned and took him and flipped him onto the ground. Another man I got in a thigh grip and he was out like a light. A couple of kicks and punches later and Zoltán had awoken and picked up a gun and shot it. He had horrible aim and it just grazed me, but Clint took it very personal and he picked him up by the neck and slammed Zoltán against the wall. I walked over to him and we both stared at him.  
"Now look. We could've avoided all this if you'd just given us the drugs in the first place." I told him sarcastically.  
"The case," he coughed. He could barely talk with Clint's hands around his throat, "They're in the, acccchhhh, case." Clint dropped him and I walked over to pick up the case. Clint handcuffed him to the railing to the stairs.  
"SHIELD will be here to take you to a rotten prison cell right about," I paused as I saw the SHIELD agents coming up the stairwell, "now." Clint and I walked off, leaving the case for the SHIELD agents. We started to head toward the car and got in, ready to just crash. Or at least that was me. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my side and after I gripped my side, I pulled my hand away and found blood.  
"Ahh, what the? What is-"  
"Nat! You-"  
"No, Clint, it's nothing. I'm fine- ahhh... I'm fine." I couldn't fight back the pain now as just below my ribs began to ache and hurt even worse and I was in serious agony. No one would be able to see it on my face, but Clint sees everything on MY face.  
"No Nat!" Clint yelled worriedly and scouted over to my side, taking off his tie and wrapping it around my side until we got back to the hotel. He was so uncomfortably close, but the feel of him next to me was soothing after missions.

When we arrived at the hotel, Clint picked me up in his arms and rushed me upstairs since I refused to go to a doctor or anything. We got to the room and he put me down and went behind me to pull down the zipper of my dress, until I was down to nothing but a bra and panties. We were comfortable with being like this around each other usually, but I couldn't help but want something more with him. He ran into the bathroom to get the first aid kit and walked out without his tux jacket or shirt on. He was gorgeous. His broad chest. The way the muscles in his arms moved when he did. The wounds and scars along his body made him absolutely, perfectly flawed. He ran over and examined my wounds more closely and I did too. I had a broken rib and a bullet grazed me on the side, the side where the blood was pouring from.  
"Oh god. Nat, this is seriou-"  
"It's fine, Clint! Just some stitching is all they need!" I yelled. Clint looked at me in horror, disgrace even.  
"Nat, what is wrong with you?! This isn't just some average, little cut you get from falling off the monkey bars! This is a broken rib! Broken! And not to mention, you were grazed by a bullet and it took skin! A lot of skin! I know you're tough, Nat and I know you want to make sure everyone knows you're not a damsel in distress, but sometimes, you just have to let people help and go to the hospital and tell someone what hurts!" Clint yelled at me in frustration. I just stared at him. And just looked back at my side and started to stitch the wounds. "Nat, talk to me!"  
"Why do you care so much, Clint?! Huh! Please tell me why!" I yelled in response.  
"Because I don't want to see you hurt! I can't stand to see you hurt! I want to take away your wounds and scars and pains and put it all on me so you don't have to live with it anymore, Nat! I, I want to help you when you're hurt, I want you to tell me when you're hurting and what's making you hurt so I can take it away!" he yelled. I could see the tears coming on in his eyes, and I was feeling them in mine. We just stared at each other. The moment was beautiful. He walked over to me and started to stroke my cheek with his thumb. I shivered again at his touch. "When I first met you, I thought you were gorgeous. Now... I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world. No one compares to you. You don't need make up to make yourself look beautiful, you already are. As I got to know you, and spend time with you, you became my best friend. I've told you things I've never told anyone before. Did things for you that I've never done for anyone before. I love your smile that makes anyone drop to their knees, your pouty lips, your gorgeous, emerald green eyes, your amazing sense of humor, your adorable laugh... I love you, Natasha." I just stared at him, tears coming from my eyes. I pulled away from his hand and walked away. He started walking behind me. I was furiously upset. I was so confused and didn't know what to think. I pulled a sweatshirt over me and threw on my sweats.  
"Oh, crap! Nat, no wait I, I'm sorry that came out, I don't even kno-"  
"You didn't what!? Mean to say what you just said!? Was it not true!?" I turned around viciously and yelled at him. I turned back toward to door, but as soon as I grabbed the handle I began to shake and I collapsed to my knees, sobbing. Clint came and sat down next to me, pulling me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me like walls. I turned myself toward him in his lap, while he still had his arms around me and sobbed into his shoulder. I wrapped my arms around his neck. I didn't know what to think, what to say... Cause he took everything from my mouth that I thought about him. I love Clint so much. I never wanted to say it, because I never knew he thought of me as more than a friend. I pulled myself off of him and walked away.  
"Nat!" he yelled as he got up and came to wrap his arms around my waist and I turned toward him and my lips met his. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him in. My tongue was pushing across his lips, trying to get in and he opened his mouth so it could. I felt his hands come down lower and pick me up and take me to the bed. He stripped off my sweats and then my jacket and I was down to next to nothing. I rolled him under me, and began kissing him again. He gripped my hips and I moaned on contact, against his lips. Then he pulled me right against him, and the heat of us both so close was amazing. I've always wanted this. He brought one hand up to tangle in my hair and the other hand he wrapped further around my waist. I took my one hand from his face to his hair as well. This was real. I wasn't drunk, I wasn't dreaming, but this was real. And Clint, his love for me is real. A man actually loves me. Madly loves me. He loves me. Clint Barton loves me. And honestly... I love Clint Barton, with every ounce of my heart and soul. I love my other heart. My other half. My Clint.

I woke up the next morning to what I thought was the hot sun shining on my back. It wasn't the hot sun though, it was Clint's arms. I had my arms around his waist and I was laying my head against his chest. I looked up at him to find he was awake. He stared into my eyes and took a hand and began to stroke my cheek. I took my hand and pulled myself as close to him as I could possibly get and wrapped my arm around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. I pulled away briefly.  
"Clint..."  
"Nat. Look I'm really sorry about what I-"  
"Clint, I love you." I cut him off.  
"Please don't be saying that just because you don't want to make me feel-" I punched him in the stomach, then silenced him with a kiss.  
"Clint, I'm in love with you." I whispered against his lips. "I have been. You're so beautiful. Your touch sends these shivers throughout my entire body. Your closeness is enough to leave me burning. The sound of my name on your lips makes me just want to pull you close to me. I cherish all our times together after missions, because I knew once it was over, we'd never go back to that until another mission came around. Back to stitching each other's wounds, holding each other in our arms, the closeness is enough to make me feel like it's something more. You get through to the REAL Natasha. No one ever has. That's how I know it's you, Clint. I am in love with you." He pulled me in and kissed me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled myself up to him so I was at eye level with him.  
"Ahh, Clint, wait just..." I moaned in pain against his lips. He pulled his hands away and we both saw blood. I put my hand on my side and pulled it up with blood as well. The wound where the bullet grazed, the stitching came undone.  
"Oh god! Nat! Get up, we have to get you to the hospit-"  
"No Clint. I don't need to go to the hospital, I ca-"  
"Then I get to stitch you up." Clint told me. I gave in and let him stitch up my wound. He got up to get the first aid kit, then he came back, sat on the bed, and pulled me into his lap. He began to stitch up my side.  
"Just tell me if it hurts too much and I'll stop." he told me sincerely. I took his face in my hands and pulled him up so he was at eye level with me and stared into his eyes. I pressed a kiss to his cheek.  
"I'm fine. Don't worry." I reassured him and he just smiled back. Once he finished the stitching, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the wound and the wound just below my rib cage. I tried to bite back the moan, but it escaped my lips. I pushed him gently onto the bed and laid myself on top of him and took his lips with mine. I tangled my fingers in his hair as he stroked my cheek with his thumb and wrapped his other arm around my middle. I slightly pulled away from his lips.  
"You know I would've never let anyone else do that or this to me, right? I would've refused to let you stitch me up if you were just anyone." I told him.  
"Yeah, I know you, Nat. It was surprising enough you let me do any of this." he replied, stroking my cheek. "That's how I know I love you... And that you must love me."  
"You're the only one who knows me, Clint." I told softly. "You're the only who ever has." He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. This is the mission I wouldn't forget, and now, at least I could leave here knowing... I don't have to wait until the next mission to be held closely to Clint, in his arms, and my lips intertwined with his.


End file.
